Israel's Materialist Militarism

Yagil Levy

Israel's Materialist Militarism examines the decade of fluctuations in Israel's military policies, from the peace period of the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada, when the military's use of excessive force led to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and on to the Second Lebanon War of 2006, which reversed the moderating tendencies of the withdrawal from Gaza a year earlier. These dynamics of escalation and deescalation are explained in terms of materialist militarism, the exchange between social groups' military sacrifice and their social rewards, which in turn increases or decreases the level of militarism in society. Levy thus lays down a theoretical framework vital to tracing the fluctuating levels of militarism in Israel and elsewhere. Israel's Materialist Militarism is recommended for those interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and military-society relations in general.
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Yagil Levy, PhD, is External Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Chapter 1: Theoretical Introduction - The Essence and Dynamics of Materialist MilitarismChapter 2: The Republican Equation and Its ViolationChapter 3: The Continuation of Oslo by the al-Aqsa IntifadaChapter 4: The War of the PeripheriesChapter 5: From "People's Army" to "Market Army"Chapter 6: The "Embedded Military" and the Implementation of the Disengagement PlanChapter 7: The Second Lebanon War: The "Gap of Legitimacies" SyndromeChapter 8: Conclusions: Why Materialist Militarism Matters

Yagil Levy astutely brings together previously unconnected ideas about citizenship and rewards to military service. He thus produces a novel, persuasive account of how and why Israeli popular support for military actions against neighbors changes from one military engagement to the next.— Charles Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University

In this valuable book, Yagil Levy probes how the Israeli state has historically been constituted by military service and its concomitant social and material rewards, how the citizenship equation has been transformed over the decades, how the military's social base has changed as a result, and how these various trajectories have come together to shape the contemporary Israeli polity, its democracy, and especially its foreign policy and military strategy. The "material militarist" theoretical framework that Levy employs for organizing and understanding these developments is sure to provoke much debate, as will his particular interpretations of Israeli politics. Students of Israel in particular and of civil-military relations in general will find much rewarding in this rich study.— Ronald R. Krebs, McKnight Land-Grant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota

Israel's Materialist Militarism

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

Summary

Israel's Materialist Militarism examines the decade of fluctuations in Israel's military policies, from the peace period of the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada, when the military's use of excessive force led to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and on to the Second Lebanon War of 2006, which reversed the moderating tendencies of the withdrawal from Gaza a year earlier. These dynamics of escalation and deescalation are explained in terms of materialist militarism, the exchange between social groups' military sacrifice and their social rewards, which in turn increases or decreases the level of militarism in society. Levy thus lays down a theoretical framework vital to tracing the fluctuating levels of militarism in Israel and elsewhere. Israel's Materialist Militarism is recommended for those interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and military-society relations in general.

Yagil Levy, PhD, is External Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Theoretical Introduction - The Essence and Dynamics of Materialist MilitarismChapter 2: The Republican Equation and Its ViolationChapter 3: The Continuation of Oslo by the al-Aqsa IntifadaChapter 4: The War of the PeripheriesChapter 5: From "People's Army" to "Market Army"Chapter 6: The "Embedded Military" and the Implementation of the Disengagement PlanChapter 7: The Second Lebanon War: The "Gap of Legitimacies" SyndromeChapter 8: Conclusions: Why Materialist Militarism Matters

Reviews

Reviews

Yagil Levy astutely brings together previously unconnected ideas about citizenship and rewards to military service. He thus produces a novel, persuasive account of how and why Israeli popular support for military actions against neighbors changes from one military engagement to the next.— Charles Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University

In this valuable book, Yagil Levy probes how the Israeli state has historically been constituted by military service and its concomitant social and material rewards, how the citizenship equation has been transformed over the decades, how the military's social base has changed as a result, and how these various trajectories have come together to shape the contemporary Israeli polity, its democracy, and especially its foreign policy and military strategy. The "material militarist" theoretical framework that Levy employs for organizing and understanding these developments is sure to provoke much debate, as will his particular interpretations of Israeli politics. Students of Israel in particular and of civil-military relations in general will find much rewarding in this rich study.— Ronald R. Krebs, McKnight Land-Grant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota